Robert Tills Returns Home
Jeff and Tam Miller escorted Mrs. Viicki Lee, former fiance of Robert Tills, the first US serviceman to be killed in combat in the Pacific Theater, to attend his burial 68 years later at Arlington Cemetery.
Defense Link has a brief synopsis of the Tills incident and why he was being buried sixty-eight years later.
“On Dec. 8, 1941, two PBY-4 Catalina Flying Boats moored in Malalag Bay, in eastern Mindanao, Philippine Commonwealth, were strafed and sunk by Japanese aircraft. All of the crew on board the PBYs escaped the aircraft with the exception of Tills, who was seen by another crewman to have been hit and killed by machine gun bullets. Tills was the first Navy officer to be lost in defense of the Philippine Islands. His body was not recovered.
In October 2007, the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC) was notified by U.S. authorities in the Philippines that aircraft wreckage had been discovered in Malalag Bay. A fragment of the wreckage bore the markings PBY-4
Last Summer, the Defense Department notified his sister Jean who spread the word among the Tills family. She also somehow found Vicki who had moved to North Carolina Robert Tills, in addition to being a hero, was something of a family legend. He had a destroyer escort named after him and one of his nephews later served aboard that ship. We arrived early and then the Tills family arrived a car at a time until we had everyone gathered around sister Jean and fiance Victoria who was also a family legend. Turned out she had gotten married and lead a life these 68 years! The whole event It turned out to be an opportunity for everyone to get reacquainted and as you can see below, there was a lot of chatting going on.
The funeral was as always a prestigious affair with horse-drawn caisson, jets flying overhead and a twenty-one gun salute. Honor Air picked up all the expenses for Mrs. Lee and Jeff and Tam paid their own way. Their generosity and kindness to Mrs. Lee was typical of all Honor Flight and Honor Air volunteers. I was proud to be their acquaintance and along for the ride. Kudos as well to Judy Lemmons who I am sure was responsible for those jets overhead! She does know how to put on a party! Jeff, Tamara and Vicki Lee (Robert Tills fiance) had a very nice article written about them in the Blue Ridge papers.